Revealing Look Into A Monopoly (rated 4 stars)

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

While I thought that This Film is Not Yet Rated was going to just be about censorship, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a lot more. It cleverly tells the story of the MPAA rating board and manages to also give a glimpse into how the rating system actually operates and how the rationale behind it hasn’t really worked. By humanizing the process it paints a picture of current society and exposes the monopolistic nature of the motion picture business and those who fight to preserve the control of the screens where we watch films. With interviews with filmmakers and a brilliant sequence that does a split-screen comparison of virtually identical scenes with different ratings that seem to be based on the sexual orientation and not what is actually shown, it’s thought provoking and entertaining.

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Skillful Mixing and Mashing (rated 5 stars)

Sounds for The Space-Set

by RIAA (Robotic Intergalactic Astro-Artists)

The idea of a mashup is simple and mixing a few songs together seems easy, but it’s very difficult to do well. One of the best collections that I’ve heard in a long time is Sounds for the Space-Set from the RIAA (Robotic Intergalactic Astro-Artists). It combines bit from sci-fi films and mashes together older and newer music to create something that is a lot more than the sum of the parts. A great sense of humour runs throughout the tracks an infectious beat and diverse sources that are sometimes hard to identify. Fun and free!

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A Nice, Light Film (rated 4 stars)

Ocean's Thirteen

by Steven Soderbergh

One of the neat things about the “Ocean’s” films is that they hearken back to the old days of Las Vegas and Hollywood where stars were stars and it was fun just to watch them. Ocean’s 13 is an almost perfect Summer movie that looks good, is fun and not too demanding. Shot is a beautiful style that constantly changes colours and movement, it almost feels like hanging out with cool people for a couple of hours. Nothing too profound, but well-crafted and everyone knows that they’re in a film and they all seem to be having a great time. It’s got a great retro feeling with the soundtrack and titles that pop up through the film and it was delightfully understated and had just enough of each character to make it interesting. It was light and fun and personal in a way that didn’t feel like it was tested and tuned with focus groups.

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Puns and Interesting Covers (rated 4 stars)

Bande a Part

by Nouvelle Vague

The idea behind the French group Nouvelle Vague is to cover 80s New Wave songs in a Bossa Nova style. The clever part in the name of the group and the style of music is that all of the words mean “New Wave” and together they form a strangely familiar but very catchy songs that I just can’t get enough of. Their second album, is named after Jean-Luc Godard’s film Bande a Part , which is another nod toward the name of the band and that they are based in France. It’s fun and works better than I thought that it would.

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Fun and Authentic Cover Versions of French Songs From the 60s (rated 4 stars)

Chick Habit

by April March

April March is very cool and very talented. She’s an animator and a singer, and with “Chick Habit” she covers a number of French Yé-Yé songs, which have a distinctive and catchy sound that is poppy and firmly rooted in the 1960s. While March isn’t from France, she manages to do great versions of the songs that have me tapping my toes. They’re fun whether you speak French of not.

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A Challenging Story of Revenge (rated 4 stars)

Hard Candy

by David Slade

It’s tough to watch at times, but ultimately I’m glad that I watched it. Hard Candy is built around terrific and ambiguous performances by Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson. The film is very manipulative which destabilizes our emotions and sympathy as the story unfolds.
It begins in a chat room with a screen filled only with text as some flirting happens and a meeting is arranged. Things become much more harrowing from that point on as a man in his 30s meets a girl who is 14. Things do not go well for him after that point in a story that plays on our fears and expectations in surprising ways.
It may be too intense for some people and the entire film often stays on very difficult edge as it spins us around and horrifies us. It’s definitely a film that will provoke discussion and many parts of the film are open to interpretation.

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The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola

We felt sad. It wasn't the movie of our dreams. It wasn't that total film we carried inside ourselves. That film we have liked to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, the film we wanted to live.

With Masculin Féminin Jean-Luc Godard follows the template of many of his later films in mixing documentary, stylized dialogue and acting, humour, philosophy, cinema, music, imagery, etc, etc, etc. together to create something that at first seems a bit confusing, but somehow starts to make more sense as it goes. Ultimately it results in some powerful combinations and meditations about youth, politics and life. At the core of Masculin Féminin is the division and fascination between politics and the personal, between men and women, between popular and high culture, and between movies and cinema.
Godard's films don't exist outside of a cinematic context and while there is an intellectual framework, it still works within a world of love for cinema that I share. Fun, thoughtful, occasionally frustrating, and ultimately rewarding (as most films by Godard are).

A Secret Artist (rated 4 stars)

In the Realms of the Unreal - The Mystery of Henry Darger

by Jessica Yu

Henry Darger created a massive 15,000 page novel along with huge paintings and incredible details for a world where sisters battled evil to free child slaves. It wasn’t seen or discovered until after he died. Jessica Yu creates a film that interweaves the distinctive drawings with animation and excerpts from Darger’s diaries and interviews with his neighbours to paint a fascinating portrait of a man who was a janitor by day and a secret artist at night.

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Spider-Man is Back and is Darker (rated 4 stars)

Spider-Man 3

by Sam Raimi

The opening credits of Spider-Man 3 conveniently feature images of the main actors as well as the main plot points of the first two films to remind us of the context of the film that we’re watching. It’s a neat way to set up the film and prepare us for what we’re about to see. Overall it’s quite enjoyable with quite a clever balance between the big and loud special effects and some good scenes with solid acting between the characters. What distinguishes Sam Raimi from many other directors is that he never seems to lose site of the characters, which is what we really should be interested in with any film.
I liked the characters and the situations, was impressed with the action and I got sucked into the story. We follow Peter Parker as he goes from the top to the bottom and realizes what is important. Who wouldn’t listen to Aunt May or fall in love with Mary Jane? The morality is simple and the film is fun and it’s a very nice way to kick off the summer movie season.

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A Delicate Bubble (rated 4 stars)

Bubble

by Steven Soderbergh

The title of Steven Soderbergh’s semi-experimental Bubble means a few different things to me. I think of a bubble that forms and how it doesn’t last. It is fragile and beautiful and somehow Soderbergh captures that in the ordinary details of life.
Beautifully photographed on HD by Soderbergh under his pseudonym Peter Andrews, it features non-professional actors telling a story with details from their own lives, in their own town. It’s hard to describe, but is a fascinating glimpse of of ordinary life which moves from the ordinary to the extraordinary. The images and sound are crisp and precise, as is the editing.
It may not be for everyone, but it is a fairly unique film and it almost doesn’t seem possible for it to have worked so well. It has a similar look and feeling to Soderbergh’s Solaris, but in a radically different context. I think that it is a film that rewards patience and attention.

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Clever Action Film (rated 5 stars)

Hot Fuzz

by Edgar Wright

One of the pleasures of genre films is seeing filmmakers work within a set of rules and play with conventions. The usual strategy for a parody is to choose a film or set of films and then make fun of the absurdity of the situation. With Hot Fuzz the approach could be to take a few cop / action films and then show the absurdity of the situations, but the team of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg (along with actor Nick Frost) do a lot more.
I first became a fan of the team when by accident a few years ago I caught the series Spaced which briefly aired on a channel in Canada and then seemed to disappear. Luckily I was able to find out more about the series from the fan web site. Spaced is a unique sitcom that has usual sitcom conventions, but is filled with elaborate references to science fiction films, video games and other elements of popular culture. I instantly loved it have been a fan ever since.
Following up Shaun of the Dead with Hot Fuzz had me excited as with the earlier film they created a wonderful, but respectful reworking of the zombie film that embraced and poked fun at the conventions of the genre. In Hot Fuzz they build the film around characters and situations that work within the rules of the genre while having fun with them. What is great about the film is that it doesn’t ever become patronizing or insult the intelligence of the audience. The jokes grow out of the plot and characters and there are some wonderful surprises and action sequences. Beautifully structured and never straying outside the well-defined lines of the cop movie, it manages to lovingly embrace the genre while having fun with it. It’s solid, intelligent and funny.

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A Big Retro Sound (rated 4 stars)

El Perro Del Mar

by El Perro del Mar

I heard the song “God Knows” by El Perro del Mar and was intrigued. It sounded like something from the Phil Spector wall of sound days. Then I found out that El Perro del Mar consists of Sarah Assbring (from Gothenburg, Sweden) playing the instruments, writing the music and lyrics as well as singing. With a sound like a huge band, but with an almost child-like voice, it’s intriguing and catchy. Oddly enough it’s the second artist that I’ve found recently from Gothenburg.

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Happy Electronic Songs with Beautiful Voices

Bird of Music

by Au Revoir Simone

You make me want to measure stars in the backyard with a calculator and a ruler, baby.

With three women with beautiful voices and three keyboards, The Bird of Music by Au Revoir Simone is a great album that I’m enjoying a lot. With harmonies and complex arrangements it’s music with lyrics that aren’t always happy, but the music and voices always cheer me up.

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A Dark, but Oddly Exhilarating Vision of the Future

Children of Men

by Alfonso Cuarón

One of the best quotes that I saw from Ray Bradbury commenting on his writing was “I don’t try to predict the future, I try to prevent it.” In watching Children of Men (adapted from P.D. James’ novel) I thought about the present and the near future a lot. It’s a bleak vision of the future that is shot in a hand-held, immediate way with virtuoso shots that go on and on, enhancing the experience and lending a documentary feel to the entire experience.
Within the film are some of the most incredible extended sequences that I’ve ever seen in a film.
It immerses you in a world and tells a story in an immediate and fragmented nature that gradually allows you to piece the bigger picture together. While some darker films may wallow in the muck of the world that is created, there is a dignity and respect that Alfonso Cuaron has for the characters that kept me going through the darker stretches of the film. The darkness is also balanced with some humorous moments and harrowing action sequences that make for one of the best films that I’ve seen in a very long time.

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Something to Scratch Off My List

Some of My Best Friends Are DJs

by Kid Koala

Kid Koala’s reputation preceded him and I listened to him performing some songs live and the sounds that he squeezes out of turntable are amazing. With a jazzy feel and infectious beats, he has to be heard to be believed. Layering sound upon sound he takes scratching to the next level and adds a musicality that transcends and refines the genre.

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A Singular Documentary Series

49 Up

Shot over 42 years, the documentary series that began with 7 Up returned to follow the lives of people in England every seven years. I first saw 28 Up and have watched the other films since then, which means that I’ve been following the series for 21 years now. By seeing how a group of people age and change over a period of time provides a unique perspective on their lives and how things have changed for them. It also provides a parallel with my own life, which has changed a lot over the past 21 years. While the context outside of the documentary has changed with the contrived situations of reality television, the latest instalment is a bit more self-reflexive with most of the participants much more settled and content than in earlier instalments. Director Michael Apted has been with the series since the beginning and took over the directorial duties beginning with 14 Up. It’s a fascinating and somewhat voyeuristic look into how things change over time.

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Walking

Click to Play

John and I went for a walk downtown today and I pointed the phone down while I walked.

The Story of a Troubled Artist

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

by Jeff Feuerzeig

I heard someone talking about The Devil and Daniel Johnston on the radio and they played a bit of one of his early songs. It was haunting and I mentally added it to the list of films that I wanted to see. When I started watching the film it was fascinating and as it progresses it becomes an amazing journey with a person who has a unique, difficult and different life. A distinctive visual artist as well as a songwriter, Daniel Johnston is quite singular and my attempts at describing this film and the man to people usually consists of recounting many of the events that are described in the film. So I won’t do that here. It’s fascinating music and a compelling story that is surprising and told through tape recordings, music, short films, archival footage and interviews. While Johnston’s range of songs can be uneven, the best are great and unforgettable.

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Dreamlike Story of Love and Myth

Tropical Malady

I rented _Tropical Malady” knowing very little about it and it is a remarkable film in how it follows distinct and different rhythms. With a simple plot the film slowly unfolds as a simple love story, but then shifts into a version of a folk tale. As things progress it becomes gradually stranger and more dreamlike. It’s a haunting film from Thailand that is difficult to describe as it feels more like music or poetry than a narrative film.

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Deliberate Film About Chance and Choices (rated 4 stars)

Match Point

by Woody Allen

Match Point is a simple, beautifully shot film that intellectually examines chance and how that affects the choices that we make. While covering a lot of the same ground as Louis Malle’s Damage and Allen’s own Crimes and Misdemeanors, this time Allen has a more focused and concise story that is deliberately paced as one thing logically leads to another with an element of chance thrown in. I liked it on a intellectual level and admired the control as it unfolded.

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